A THOUSAND WORDS - Alex Waterhouse-Hayward's blog on pictures, plants, politics and whatever else is on his mind.

La Suidisante

Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Rosa 'Maiden's Blush' May 31 2016

Rosa 'Great
Maiden's Blush' is an old rose cultivar known since the 14th century. Like
other Rosa × alba cultivars, it is very winter hardy, a tall shrub with arching
branches, and the flowers are sweetly scented.

It blooms in spring only. The young buds tend to have a
creamy yellow color on the outside. The flower petals are creamy-white or white
in the bud, then pale pink, and finally fade again to white. It is not overly
prickly, has relatively few thorns. It tolerates shade and it can be grown on
or beside north-facing walls (in the northern hemisphere). It has enough
strength and vigour that it can be used as a climber.

This cultivar is known by many other names, including
'Cuisse de Nymphe', 'Incarnata', and 'Maiden's
Blush'.

The above is information from Wikipedia. It is fairly
accurate but I prefer English rosarian Peter Beales’s (now sadly dead) from his
beautiful and very complete book Peter
Beales – Classic Roses.

Of a class of roses called Albas he writes:

The Flower Garden, an old gardening book of 1840 lists
forty-two distinct cultivars, quite a few of whose names I have not seen
recorded elsewhere and which are probably simply variations of R. alba ‘Maxima’or
‘Maiden’s Blush’, cultivars I frequently get askedto identify each year. These two cultivars
between them have more alternative names than any others I know. ‘Maiden’s
Blush’has been known over the years as ‘La Royale’’La Suidisante’, ‘La
Virginale’, ‘Incarnata’ and ‘Cuisse de Nymphe,’ a slightly deeper form having
the name ‘Cuisse de Nymphe Émue’. It is was this rose, growing in the garden of
my birthplace in north Norfolk and affectionately known as ‘Grandad’s Rose’,
which first excited my curiosity and led to my lifelong affinity with roses. I
have a vivid childhood memory of enjoying this rose, drawn to her no doubt by
her ‘expensive’perfume, which seemed to pervade the entire garden each June.
Despite years of neglect, this old plant is still growing exactly where I remember
it, and it will certainly outlive me. It gives me pleasure to know that her
offspring are now growing in many places of the world, since it was this
veryplant that I obtained my first
budding eyes of this old cultivar when starting my nursery thirty years ago
(Beales’ book first published in 1985).

Rosa 'Maiden's Blush' July 2 2013

For the almost 20 years that I had my ‘Maiden’s Blush’ in
our Athlone garden it suffered from a disease called botrytis. The buds would
not open. They would become yellow and fall off. Since we moved to our small
Kitsilano garden I have been astounded that ‘Maiden’s Blush’and other albas no
longer have the disease. I waited for days before I finally cut off the rose
you see here. It is past its prime as the separate blooms have gone to white.
But the perfume is there!

My guess is that even very old, old roses need a change
and new soil in a different location. In early July of 2013 I did get one glorious bloom seen here.